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Cassava Flour Paleo Brownies {nut-free, gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free}
These Cassava Flour Paleo Brownies are allergen-friendly being nut-free, gluten and grain free, refined sugar-free along with dairy-free. These fudgy, rich brownies feature both cacao powder and melted dark chocolate you are gonna love these rich, ooey gooey, chewy grain-free paleo brownies!!
Are you a brownie lover? I wasn’t growing up, but I sure am now! I LOVE a dark chocolate, fudgy, double chocolate chip brownie. Growing up my mom never made desserts from scratch. It was always a boxed brownie mix with water, eggs, and vegetable oil. There is nothing wrong with that if it’s your jam but learning more about nutrition and the value that ingredients can provide in terms of nutrients, I wanted to make a healthier version. This is a simple recipe that is allergen-friendly and more importantly delicious! Once I realized that I don’t enjoy the overly sweet brownie recipes, I started testing with different sugars, different types of chocolate, and flour alternatives.
Who would have thought that all purpose flour, almond flour, and cassava flour would yield such different results! The major concern for me was it needed to be gluten-free. The second concern was the amount of sugar. I really don’t do well with a lot of sugar, buttttt if you want a brownie, you need sugar to get that crinkly top. So, you will see 1 full cup of coconut sugar in this recipe but overall, it is what completes this brownie. You can always remove some of the sugar, just remember that altering the recipe will yield different results.
Good news for you we have our very own Tasty Yummies Raw Organic Coconut Sugar! One of the other positives for using coconut sugar is that it has been shown to have a lower glycemic index. What does that mean? It means that coconut sugar has been shown in some studies to have less of an impact on your blood sugar. It may help with not getting or feeling that sugar rush and then a crash twenty minutes later. Everyone has a different reaction to sugar, but with using a sugar that is less processed can be more beneficial than using refined sugars.
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Sheet Pan Roast Chicken and Veggies Dinner {+ Video} Gluten-free + Paleo
This Sheet Pan Roast Chicken and Veggies Dinner is extremely simple to toss together, it’s ready in just about 30 minutes and you can easily adjust the recipe’s ingredients to your personal favorites. Swap out the veggies, try a different herb and spice blend.
Sheet pan dinners are the ultimate in one-pan meals. These versatile meals are easy to customize for even the pickiest of eaters. With a trusty sheet pan, just a few pantry staples and your favorite in season produce in just about 30 minutes of cooking, you can have a hearty, tasty dinner on the table any night of the week.
Get Creative
This recipe is highly versatile, you change out the veggies depending on the season and your family’s preferences. Here we went with Brussels sprouts and butternut squash, two of our personal favorites – but you can also use cabbage, green beans, squash, peppers, onions or shallots, broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes (white or sweet), zucchini, carrots, etc. Go with the best the season has to offer and of course, your family’s favorites.
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Carne Asada Burrito Bowl {gluten-free and paleo-friendly}
With Cinco de Mayo later this week, it felt more than appropriate to share a Mexican-inspired dish to kick this week off right. As someone who loves Mexican food, with a preferred avoidance of corn, beans and most dairy, it can make hitting up a local authentic So Cal taqueria challenging, at best. Burritos are nearly out of the question.
At best I can always hack any Mexican menu and throw together a killer salad with fajita meat or carne asada, a bed of lettuce with the meat and just load up on guacamole or avocado and skip the cheese, sour cream, rice and beans. I generally avoid the tortillas and skip the chips (or pack my own) – but more and more I am finding this isn’t enough. Many restaurants use spice blends and marinades that contain gluten. Going out for Mexican is just not as fun as it should be.
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Paleo Sausage and Herb Bread Stuffing (Low Carb, Nut-free)
I asked over on Snapchat a while back, what holiday recipes people wanted help with. There was an abundance of requests for stuffing recipes for Thanksgiving. Particularly grain-free stuffing recipes.
I have several other stuffing recipes here in the archives if you are looking for other renditions:
Roasted Butternut Squash, Apple and Leek Bread Stuffing with Collard Greens
Gluten-free Mushroom Stuffing
Single Serve Gluten-Free Classic Sausage and Bread Stuffing
This particular recipe is a holiday classic, the perfect stuffing – moist in the middle and crisp on the top. For me, this is exactly the stuffing I grew up eating, but rather than white bread so many of us can’t have or even the overly process gluten-free stuff, this is made with a super quick, homemade (nut-free) grain-free bread, that you can throw together ahead of time.
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Sweet Potato Salad with Bacon
With summer nearly upon us, we are already planning a summer of BBQs, cookouts and picnics. While I am not a mayo hater by any means, I have always felt indifferent about traditional mayo-based potato salads. It’s just not my thing, something about it doesn’t sit well with me. I think it’s years of seeing it sitting in the sun at picnics, uncovered looking all gnarly. Yuck.
I have over the years developed several variations instead on vinegar and herby based potato and sweet potato salads that have become staples at all of my summer shindigs. That is until this Sweet Potato Salad with Bacon from Heather Christo’s book Pure Delicious. For the foreseeable future, this may just give all other potato salads the boot! It’s that good.
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How-to Make Plantain Tortillas
Whether you to avoid consuming corn and grains because have an allergy/intolerance or maybe you just prefer to limit how often you eat them, either way we all know this makes eating Mexican food a challenge. I am next to certain this life isn’t worth living without tacos – I’m just sayin’. OK that may be a bit dramatic, but I for one don’t actually love the idea of never having a taco again, just because I want to make healthier choices.
With Cinco de Mayo and several trips to Mexico falling within a one-month period, tacos have definitely been on my mind and in my dreams! I decided rather than cry while everyone around me was indulging in all the tacos, I used this as inspiration to come up with an alternative.
Plantain tortillas are certainly not something I invented, I have seen plenty of adaptations, some call for eggs, some use the plantains uncooked. I have played around with many variations, but these seem to be what works best for me (lightly adapted from this recipe). The key is green plantains. The greens ones are starchy and less sweet than the yellow. For my money, these produce the most authentic tortillas. I also recommend cooking them first, it softens them and when you add some water the mixture feels just the way traditional masa feels when making homemade tortillas.
There are a few steps here, but they are well worth it, you’ll think so too, especially as you are enjoying epic tacos. Plus you can make the tortillas ahead of time, store in the fridge and cook up anytime within 3 days, or so.
I find adding the fresh lime zest to really tone down any sweetness and bring out the traditional tortilla vibes. I have also been known to add a pinch or two of chile powder or garlic powder, for extra flavor.
Let’s get to it…
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Mini Caramel Apple Pies with Cinnamon Streusel {gluten-free, vegan}
In case you haven’t noticed, I have a thing for mini stuff! Why make a single large-sized pie, when you can have 12 tiny ones? I am not sure where or when this love affair began, but I constantly find myself opting for littler things over the traditional size. (spoiler alert: I have another mini dessert coming to the website later this week)
When Attune Foods contacted me to develop a holiday-worthy dessert recipe using one of their Erewhon Supergrain cereals, I was excited for the challenge of recreating a classic sweet treat, like apple pie. I opted for mini apple pies with a deliciously simple crust and filling, a crunchy spiced streusel topping made with the buckwheat hemp cereal, all topped with a drizzle of my very easy-to-make vegan caramel sauce.
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Grain-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars – Gluten-Free + Dairy-Free
I finally made some time to play in the kitchen with a new baked good recipe and boy am I glad I did. I have been craving chocolate chip cookies like crazy lately but rather than another cookie recipe, which there are a ton of all over the internet, I wanted to make cookie bars. These tasty beauties are soft and chewy and the chocolate just melts in your mouth. They satisfy that craving for chocolate chip cookies, and then some.
I made these with coconut oil, since that is what I had on hand, but I cannot wait to try it with palm shortening, since whenever I have made cookies with it they are always extra incredible. But, these are definitely not lacking in any way! These bars would be great with other goodies added like dried cherries, chopped walnuts, coconut, etc.
I cannot wait to share these with my parent’s tonight after dinner. I made these last night and I couldn’t try them until today after I took photos and the anticipation was killing me. As much as I don’t necessarily want to share these, I am quite happy to not only have other recipe testers around, but also a few more mouths to eat my creations, to save me from sitting down and eating ALL of them! Also two more people to judge me if I am a pig and eat ALL of them in one day. Ooh it’s so tempting.
[print_this]Grain-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars – Gluten-Free + Dairy-Free
- 2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour (I use Honeyville)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/3 cup honey
- 2 extra-large local farm fresh brown eggs
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted (grass-fed butter, palm shortening or ghee will also work)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened non-dairy milk (I used almond)
- 3/4 cup dairy-free gluten-free semi-sweet chocolate chips (I like Chocolate Dream or Enjoy Life)
- 1/4 cup walnuts (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350º F and lightly grease the bottom and sides of an 8″ square baking pan with coconut oil.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl, add all of the wet ingredients. Mix well with a hand mixer or a whisk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix very well with a hand mixer. Then fold in the chocolate chips and nuts (if you are including) with a spatula.
Pour all of the batter into the greased pan and spread evenly with a spatula or your hands, gently press in.
Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until the top is nice and golden brown and the center is no longer doughy. Allow to cool 10-15 minutes before cutting into bars or they could fall apart.
*These keep best in an air-tight container in the fridge. You could put these in the microwave for a few seconds when serving to take the chill off or to get them slightly warm. [/print_this]
